Long before Notre Dame de Paris became an international success, Richard Cocciante had established himself as an atypical, distinctive figure of pop music in Europe and South America, becoming one of the most prolific artists as a hugely successful singer-songwriter. Plamondon has received the highest artistic awards in both Quebec and France. Cindy was first staged in 2002 at the Palais des Congrès. After Notre Dame de Paris, Plamondon wrote Cindy, an adaptation of Cinderella, by Charles Perreault with compositions by Romano Musumarra. In 1998, the singer-songwriter Riccardo Cocciante wrote his masterpiece, the opera-musical Notre Dame de Paris, which debuted in September at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Starmania was Plamondon’s biggest success before Notre Dame de Paris, but he has also written other musicals: Plamondon: The Legend of Jimmy (1990) with Michel Berger Sand et les Romantiques (1992) with Catherine Lara and Lily’s Passion with Barbara. That same year, Celine Dion recorded a tribute album, Dion chante Plamondon, which sold 1.5 million copies. In 1992, Starmania was made into an album and adapted into English as Tycoon, written by Tim Rice, and sung by Tom Jones, Celine Dion and Kim Carnes, Nina Hagen, Peter Kingsbury and Cyndi Lauper. In 1979, the musical Starmania, written in collaboration with Michel Berger, was born and immediately became an overwhelming success in France and in Quebec, where it has sold five million records and entertained three million viewers. Upon moving to Paris, he wrote for Julien Clerc, Catherine Lara, Johnny Halliday, Riccardo Cocciante and other artists.

In the ‘70s, he wrote songs for Diane Dufresne, and quickly gained notoriety in Quebec and eventually France. Initially intending to teach and work in journalism, after seeing Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar he quickly realized that his vocation was to write rock musicals. After attending a Jesuit seminary in Montreal, where he studied ancient Greek and Latin, he traveled to Europe at 20 to study literature and modern languages in London, Berlin, Madrid and Rome and Art History at the School of the Louvre in Paris.

A native of Quebec, Luc Plamondon is one of the most respected authors in France and Canada.

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